Back to the Future

by Shail, Andrew; Stoate, Robin

• ISBN13: 9781844572939
• ISBN10: 1844572935
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-08-17
• Publisher: British Film Institute

Summary

Back to the Futurewas the top-grossing film of 1985 and winner of the 1986 People's Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture. This fascinating study places the film in the historical context of the Reagan era, the "New New Hollywood," and director Robert Zemeckis's filmmaking career. Among the major themes explored are time travel and the potential and pitfalls of science and atomic energy. The book also considers teen culture in the 1980s and the 1950s, depicted in the film as a period in which traditional "American" values and gender roles contrasted sharply with the more troubled decade from which Marty McFly begins his time-traveling adventures. Includes 60 color stills from the movie.

Author Biography

Andrew Shail  is the co-editor of Menstruation: A Cultural History and Neurology and Modernity, and is the editor of Reading the Cinematograph. He is a News International Research Fellow in Film at St. Anne’s College, Oxford University. Robin Stoate has contributed articles to the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory, forthcoming in 2010.